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Hey everyone! We've been doing (more) website updates, and we aren't done just yet!
Currently, on our own internal team pages, on the Helpcenter, and on the Forums, you'll notice some nifty new additions at the top of the page in the form of new banner images and titles! It's a small addition, but it's one that really helps to liven up the website. We plan to continue extending this change to the rest of the website in the upcoming days. However, as you've noticed, these images aren't exactly original, all of them being taken from various concept art and ingame screenshots of various official Halo titles. We would like to give credit where it's due and make it explicitly clear that we do not claim these as original by any means. We do plan to replace all of these images with our own work - once we have the art talent necessary.
A smaller change involves the pagination on the main website theme. Previously, the current page was the same coloring as the others but with a blue glow around it. For those who never paid attention, it looked like this:
The new and improved pagination looks like this:
As you can see, the background and text color of the active page are changed instead, as opposed to just an ugly glow. The glow effect is still there, but very very subtle - not as in-your-face as before.
Along with these polishes, we did manage to squash a few bugs that were lurking away for some time. You can view the full changelog linked below.
Now, I know what you're thinking. What is the actual status on the games? What's the status of Project: Infinity, Raven Runner, or Blamite? What the hell is Eon? What is the actual status of the studio and why is there no apparent progress besides scattered website updates and announcements of new projects?
These are all excellent questions, and I think transparency is the key here.
Project: Infinity and Blamite are both led by myself, Raven Runner is led mainly by Michael (AwakenedRage), and Eon is led by JTKreates. Let's start in order:
What is the status of Project: Infinity and Blamite?
Project: Infinity is still at baby stages, as is Blamite. Engines take a long time to develop and up until recently I've been stuck in high school. Once I get a job and proper income, my focus will move a lot more towards Elaztek than it has been for a while, and if finances allow, putting money into getting paid people on the team - or if that isn't doable, just spreading the word and getting dedicated Halo fans to participate in the project.
In terms of Blamite, a little bit has been going on that I can go ahead and show off real quick - though it isn't a whole lot. The most recent additions include a crash screen and some improvements to the console. The crash screen was implemented shortly after the Halo 2 Alpha leaked to the public and was made playable over system link thanks to modders. Some screenshots of these can be seen in the spoiler below.
What is the status of Raven Runner?
For those unaware, Raven Runner was on a temporary development hiatus. That hiatus ended a while ago, but a second, much longer hiatus may be about to hit due to some things that Michael is going through (either he or myself will give more details later, if he wishes for the details to be disclosed - no promises). Even so, I must admit that I myself am very distant from most of what happens with Raven Runner, and most of its team operates separately from the core Elaztek team. This is both due to the fact that the Raven Runner team existed many years prior to Elaztek being something that wasn't just an idea floating about in my brain, going back to 2014 and possibly prior with a project called Demoria Online. Additionally, Michael seems to keep a lot of his stuff secret either on purpose or just due to being busy/not thinking to do it. I don't know what his reasoning is, but I do know that Raven Runner is still currently the most developed project we have at the moment. My hope is for that to change soon - not against Raven Runner of course but because we need more stuff to start happening besides a single mobile-focused game in active development.
What is the Eon Game Engine?
One of the newest members of our team, JTKreates, is a fairly skilled C++ programmer. He went the route of developing a second engine for Elaztek Studios, known as the Eon Game Engine. I created the logo for it and he's been doing all the coding thus far. The difference between Blamite and Eon is their target game type - Blamite is a 3D-focused engine, whereas Eon is a purely 2D game engine, designed for vastly different purposes. As such, it generally makes more sense to keep them just like that - two separate projects. That may change later on down the road, it may not. Time will tell.
Chaotic United
A while back, I took down the announcement that was made shortly after Elaztek's launch regarding Chaotic United, without giving a whole ton of clarification on the state of the two beyond just "that old statement doesn't apply anymore". I think it's high time I inform you guys of some of the newer developments regarding the relationship between Elaztek and CU.
What the folks on CU have seen slowly happening is a slow carrying-over of various ranks, roles, and site features from Elaztek to CU. Additionally, people have critiqued me for some of these changes/additions as well as my general attitude regarding the management of the two, with people saying things like "CU and Elaztek are not the same", or "they are two completely different entities". While, yes, CU and Elaztek are separate groups, their fundamental values and principles are the same. While one is driven by Minecraft servers and the other by game and software development, the interests, ideas, and so on are the same throughout.
However, a decision was made internally not too long ago and that decision was to end the synchronization of the staff team between the two. This had nothing to do with any specific incident but rather just the realization that having the same group of people spread across two organizations is inefficient and isn't the best way to run things. The people currently on both and who hold positions on both will retain those positions, but any future applicants who wish to serve on both will need to apply on both.
However, despite these changes, the statement still stands. CU and Elaztek will continue to borrow from each other freely as they are both run by the same people for the most part. They will not share a total team, but they will share ideals, values, principles, and just the general way of running things where applicable. They won't be identical, but the "CU isn't Elaztek" argument is simply not valid. It never was, and it never will be.
Conclusion
This thing has been getting way too long, so let's wrap it up with some recruitment, eh?
We are still looking for people to join the Blamite Game Engine and Project: Infinity development teams! We are especially wanting 3D artists and concept artists so we can stop grabbing screenshots off of Google Images for our new website banners! Additionally, we'd love to have some folks skilled in C++ to hop on board and help us build Blamite (experience with Blam is preferred as well, but not required - just be prepared to learn how it works)! You can apply for a position within the Blamite team here, or for a position within the Project: Infinity team here.
That's all for now, folks! Make sure to keep an eye on our Discord for all the latest happenings and so on!